Maori elders greeted the dawn and then rubbed our noses in it!
. WHALE SHOW OPENING BEGINS AT DAWN IN A PARKING LOT AT THE ONTARIO SCIENCE CENTRE A few minutes into the official opening of Whales | Tohora , a Maori elder told the invited audience that at one time her people were fierce hunters of whales. But, she said, the Maori have changed their ways and are helping the scientific community in New Zealand study the world's largest creatures. Whales | Tohora is a new travelling exhibition that just rolled into Toronto. Opening at the Ontario Science Centre, the whale show includes two enormous, fully-articulated sperm whale skeletons, life-sized reproductions and a crawl-through model of a whale heart. Objects in this 750 square metre exhibition include rare specimens from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa's whale collection, one of the largest in the world. In addition to the science and biology of whales, Whales | Tohora explores the cultural and historical significance of these creatures to the Maori and Pakeha (non-Maori) cu